Roles, roles, and roles!

It always seems to be the case - I do various voiceovers for people over a period of a few months, and no matter how I try to space them out, they all seem to be released around the same time. This past month has certainly validated my theory, as - prepare for Dulci overload - 5 of the movies I've acted in have recently been released....



The Only Alien on the Planet by Bella (me as Mrs. Tibbs)

Seventeen year old Virginia Christianson, aka Ginny, moves to a new home with her parents shortly after her older brother, Paul, moves out for college. It is there that she meets Caulder, her next door neighbor and classmate. Together they team up to solve the mystery of Smitty Tibbs. The boy who never speaks, never cries, never reacts to anyone. But soon Ginny realizes that the closer they get to Smitty, the more harm than good they seem to do to him.




Thy Neighbor by Overman (me as Girl)

A girl's tranquil evening is interrupted by her neighbor.




Darren by ChatNoir (me as Mom)

A surreal experience. This will be an entry for Filminute 2009 - a festival for one-minute movies of all kinds.




Donate Here by JosephKW (me as Miss Lifeless)

Another entry to the International Filminute (one-minute film) contest. And, interestingly enough, another surreal experience.




Odyssey Episode 5 by Killian (me as Commander Melissa Forbes)

"ECHOES OF YESTERDAY"
An expedition unearths Ancient ruins on the unexplored world of Calypso; Ryan meets an old flame, Frost has an unpleasant encounter with something unknown, and the Odyssey crew discovers the first inklings that something dangerous is lurking out amongst the stars…



Please support these excellent directors by letting them know what you think of their movies - I enjoyed working with each of them. Each has a unique style that made the experiences educational for me.

Aniboom's History Channel Competition - Rough Cuts submissions due Aug 31

Submit your Rough Cut to Aniboom’s History Channel Competition and win $5,000. The first stage submissions period ends in less than two weeks—we are still looking for the top five "Rough Cuts" (early-stage works ranging anywhere from basic sketches, storyboards, animatics to partial or full animations), which you can synch up to the free audio provided exclusively at Aniboom.com/History.

The top five are awarded an automatic $5,000 so that they may be further developed into final animations. Those final animations then go on to compete for a $25,000 development deal and national television exposure.

This is a great opportunity for you to showcase your style, win cash prizes, and show off your animation to millions. It’s simple—just download 30 seconds of exclusive free audio and show us how you’d animate it— sketches, drawings, and storyboards are all fully welcome! But don’t wait to the last minute—our servers get a bit overloaded when everyone submits all at once!

With the first stage of this competition ending August 31^st, now is your time to win a cool $5,000 and get on the road to your big break!


Thanks,
The aniBoom team

Oil - my iClone tribute to famous movies

My entry into the iClone Tribute to Famous Movies contest (deadline August 31st if you haven't entered yet)



Based on the movie Grease.

What I'm Looking Forward to the Most in iClone4

There are multiple amazing, amazing features coming with iClone4, but the one I am looking forward to the most is the Real-Time 3D Facial Animation. Many of the other enhancements coming with Ver.4 are going to be exciting to play with (don't get me wrong, I WANT them ALL!!!), but I think this is the one I'll use the most often.

Real-Time 3D Facial Animation is going to deeply enhance my dialogue-driven storylines - not only will I be able to puppeteer a character as they are speaking, I will also be able to puppeteer the reactions of non-speaking characters.

I have spent so much time in CrazyTalk5 creating scripts to import into iClone3 to animate dialogue - but being able to do all of this right within iClone4 while I'm working on a scene is going to be such a pleasure and will bring the visible emotion of my characters to a higher level. Take a look:

Complication - Coming Soon

Complication - Coming Soon
Featuring: AnotherNewDawn & Dulci
With music by: Rik Vargard

Every relationship has its ups and downs

A glimpse to tease you:

Back from Siggraph

Details of the iClone4 preview I attended can be found here, and the demo videos provided by Reallusion thus far are as follows:

iClone4 - Drag & Drop Editing Video
iClone4 - Transition Curve Video
iClone4 - Video Texture as Image Layer Video
iClone4 - Motion Path with HDR Video

I had such an enjoyable time at Siggraph. What fun to meet my radio partner Wolf in the flesh (and relieved to discover that yes, he is a person and not a howling beast), along with Rainman of CoolClones, Lizard of TMUnderground, John Martin with Reallusion, James Martin with Reallusion (iClone training), Charles Chen with Reallusion (an incredibly gracious and welcoming host), and CloneBot Zack. I also had the opportunity to meet the talented Ricky Grove.

These kinds of experiences really make me feel that I'm part of a community of like-minded creative individuals who are enthused and energized to be delving into ever-changing technologies and seizing the seemingly endless advancements as opportunities to strengthen and give life to their imaginations. What an exciting time we live in!

One exhibit in particular stood out to me - iPi Soft is a markerless motion capture system that can work with your webcam. I downloaded the 30-day trial and now need to figure out how to work it - the interface looks fairly intuitive once you get the basics down. I think it's a 2-person operation so I'm waiting to grab a volunteer to push some buttons for me while I prance around my office. I'll let you know how it goes!

All in all, I'm feeling newly motivated to dive deeper into machinima / animation. I am spending the time between now and the release of iClone4 (hopefully sometime in September) creating sets and writing scripts. Stay tuned!